H. S. Kazemi, S. M. Tavakkoli, R. Naderi,
Volume 6, Issue 2 (6-2016)
Abstract
The Isogeometric Analysis (IA) is utilized for structural topology optimization considering minimization of weight and local stress constraints. For this purpose, material density of the structure is assumed as a continuous function throughout the design domain and approximated using the Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) basis functions. Control points of the density surface are considered as design variables of the optimization problem that can change the topology during the optimization process. For initial design, weight and stresses of the structure are obtained based on full material density over the design domain. The Method of Moving Asymptotes (MMA) is employed for optimization algorithm. Derivatives of the objective function and constraints with respect to the design variables are determined through a direct sensitivity analysis. In order to avoid singularity a relaxation technique is used for calculating stress constraints. A few examples are presented to demonstrate the performance of the method. It is shown that using the IA method and an appropriate stress relaxation technique can lead to reasonable optimum layouts.